Changing Fate: Red Shift
by CSS.Stravag
Summary: Chapter 2 UP! Non-Crossover Fic. What happens when one variable changes? How can the history we know change so much on the linchpin of so little? What failure ZAFT never knew can change Fate itself. Anticipative fiction, AU of Gundam SEED. ZAFT-Centric.
1. Red Shift

(Gundam SEED Altered Fates: Red Shift)

This is a bit of an experiment on my part. How would the war be fought if things turned out different because a certain variable changed? Would the war end with a decisive outcome instead of the orgasm of battle at Jachin Due and the effective surrender of both sides? Who would survive the interim battles? Who would not survive that otherwise lived through the cruel conflict de rigeur?

These questions can best be answered in prose, with the help of 'The Gods' as old-hand RPG players call them. Those of you who are familiar with my other stories know that I favor using dice and random result generation to determine the outcomes of some battles and how the Fates change the way the story flows. After all, nothing is so cruel as to trump reality, and reality is at best insanely random when looked at from a large perspective. There are so many possible changes to the story overall that changing various 'linchpin' events can have drastic and far-reaching effects for everyone involved.

I shall not speak to what element be altered, but in this chapter you will see where the paths of fate diverge markedly from the original story of Gundam SEED. There will be a **lot** of alterations to come, following in the principle that a stone dropped into the lake creates a small impact trauma but massive waves radially away from the point of impact, waves that traverse a long distance. And possibly at another time I shall do a mirror image rebuild, changing the fate in the other direction and showing what happens then.

And now, onto the obligatory declarations (and these apply to all sections)

Stravag does not own any part of the Gundam franchise. If I did, you could rest assured GSD would have been a lot bloodier than it was. Not quite as bad as Zeta, but close (har har har). And Stella probably would have survived (not Shin, though), and…

Writing note: numbers in parentheses, like this: (0) mean check the footnote for something else I think goes along with the thought. Could be informative, could be humorous, or both.

BAAAAAD LANGUAGE WARNING: Much as in real life, there will be foul language in some sections. Even the best of us let fly a four-letter word when really pissed off, startled, or else. Not to mention that Yzak has a very foul temper and a rather excellent grasp of invective. You can expect Yzak to be the lead scorekeeper in shady language, with Dearka and Athrun a distant second and third respectively.

VIOLENCE WARNING: Oh yes, Virginia, there will be no shortage of it. Gundam is about the political scheming and the war, NOT about the (arguably thin) romance aspects. Expect this story will reflect that one cold, hard fact.

ANTI-POLITICAL-CORRECTNESS WARNING: To strive to be politically correct serves no purpose, for real life makes no such distinction. I will not do so. Death before dishonor. End of story. Please don't ask me to explain this one. (note that this also applies to normal fandom principle: if I have to choose between reality and preferred perception, I will choose reality).

And NEG, THERE IS NO CHARACTER BASHING IN THIS STORY! PERIOD! Every character is entitled to some props even if their only purpose in the story is the classic image of deus ex machina. AND THERE WILL BE NO SLASH IN THIS STORY BECAUSE IT IS DEFINITELY NOT CANON TO GUNDAM SEED!

Thank you. And now onto the story.

(Chapter 01: Special and Hazardous Operations)

"That's it. It's exactly like Commander Le Creuset said," Yzak declares after he brings his binoculars down from his faceplate.

"What? With the right amount of prodding, they're sure to come out of their hole?" Dearka notes in his usual nonchalant fashion.

"After all, the Naturals are stupid and pathetic," Yzak replies, confirming Dearka's comment. With a quick radio code, the location of the five prototype units was transmitted to Miguel's unit, which was coordinating the armored spearhead inside the colony.

Less than a minute later, the two GINN units arrived in the area and began doing what they did best: turning Earth Alliance units and personnel into scrap and greasy spots respectively. "Let's go," Athrun says coldly. _What do you think of this little war, Kira_? He mentally asks the friend he had not seen since prep school back on the moon.

Once clear of the precipice, the ZAFT infiltration team was running mostly weightless and had to use their maneuvering packs to close up with the MS transports. "Destroy any parts we can't carry and the factories. Intel indicates five of them," Yzak says almost needlessly. The whole team had gone over this several times in briefing. "Are the other two still inside?"

"Rusty and I will continue," Athrun says. "Yzak, you guys take these three."

"Okay, go for it!" Yzak had not yet begun firing on the infantry around the units, but the other ZAFT soldiers with them were already firing and getting kills. "If you're piloting one, disable the self-destruct first!"

_No shit_, Athrun thinks but does not say. When excited, Yzak tended state the obvious...

The infiltration team landed at the vanguard of the transport column, where most of the personnel were already dead from the ministrations of the GINN units or the suppressing fire laid down by the team in approach. Athrun did not begin firing until after landing, at which point he knelt, brought his weapon up and began firing the short bursts he was trained for. His training had emphasized that it really only took one well-placed round of 6.2mm to kill someone, anything more than that was overkill and overkill was only good on the front lines, not in a stealth attack behind enemy lines without the ammo to spare.

Immediately Rusty dropped down to his right and three meters forward of Athrun, using the same short burst tactic, and between the two they knocked down the three visible enemy combatants in their area, driving two more into the body of the MS transport. Athrun rushed forward to the rear corner of the transport as Rusty stopped to hurl a grenade into the transport's personnel door; the explosion caused him to flinch but nothing more than the whip-crack sound of 76mm machine gun rounds from the GINNs. Idly Athrun wondered how much gunfire it took to increase the air pressure in a colony... (1)

"Move it up!" One of the ZAFT Marines shouts, waving Rusty and Athrun forward from the lead MS carrier to the middle. On the way Athrun let fly a couple of bursts toward some more of the Earth Alliance personnel, not expecting much in the way of results and getting it. With that gap run, Athrun threw a non-fragmenting grenade (2) forward in between some crates that had been scattered by the sudden arrival of ZAFT MS; the detonation of the grenade took out three and severely injured a fourth, the latter Rusty dispatched with a deft stroke of his combat knife. Dearka moved up past where Rusty had sliced the last survivor up and took the ladder on the MS carrier up to the machine inside.

"This is pathetic!" Rusty half-shouts on the radio band as he ducks from one place of cover to the next, drawing very little fire in the process. "Athrun, lend me a hand?"

"Got it," Athrun replies immediately as he pops around the side of a heavy container and sights up one of the Earth Alliance soldiers. One burst missed, though the soldier did not pull back behind his cover and the second burst caused the back of his head to disappear in a puff of pink mist behind him. When his teammate tried boring in on Athrun, Rusty cleared his cover and gave him a triple in the chest; said soldier collapsed straight down and moved not a whit again, except to convulse twice and whizz himself. Both Athrun and Rusty darted out from their cover as one, sweeping left and right of their movement axis for anyone that might try to shoot them; when assured it was clear, the two pilots moved up to the waiting Marines at the front edge of the third carrier.

The third carrier was nothing special in and of itself, though one of the Marines did take several hits. The normal suit he was wearing did nothing to properly protect him from the 6.2mm rounds, leaving him without life by the time his body hit the ground. Yzak had the answer de rigeur for the Earth Alliance soldier, he shot under the edge of the staff car the soldier was hiding behind, causing him to collapse forward of the engine block from hits to his leg; Athrun finished him off with a pair to the head and dropped his empty magazine out for a fresh one. With that done, Yzak took the ladder up to the load bed to mount the third of the exposed Gundams while the Marines, Athrun and Rusty surged forward to the factory blocks.

Stiff resistance at the load doors gave the Marines more pause and an extra three casualties; Rusty got one, Athrun got part of two more and the Marine escorting them delivered the coup de grace with an offensive grenade that wiped out the remainder of the guards in the area. Even with the ground-level cleared out they still took and delivered casualties, as the two MS transports were veritably crawling with more Earth Alliance troops and they had something of a plunging field of fire to where the Marines were maneuvering (3). Despite the increasing casualties, Athrun, Rusty, and four Marines managed to get up to covered positions near the personnel doors to the factory block, which is what they wanted: controlled, defensible access to the last two Mobile Suits.

"For pathetic Naturals, they sure are having a good run of luck taking us out," Rusty declares as he counts the amount of bodies behind them that wore the green of ZAFT regulars. The total was not all that favorable to ZAFT, but the mission was paramount.

"It could be worse," Athrun grumps. "C'mon, we can enter through here and flank right," Athrun semi-orders as he trips the door open and checks around the corner with a small mirror plate. The presence of heavy equipment containers gave him a good field of cover immediately inside the door, but beyond that things were looking sparse.

"Wes, Kubo, work your way up and onto the gantries, see if you can get plunging fire positions on them. Don't do anything stupid, just get good positions and spray 'em down," the Marine commander orders.

"Yes sir!" the two Marines in question move for the ladders up to the gantries, which were thankfully protected from gunfire.

"I'll go first," Rusty says before moving into the factory block. The enemy was still firing, though at what was beyond Athrun since the six remaining ZAFT personnel not inside a MS already were accounted for...

Rusty moved right as was the plan, passing low behind a waist-high cargo crate to a larger material crate, then stood back up and loosed a few bursts of fire at some Earth Alliance soldiers. Once he drew fire to himself, the two Marines moved to the lower cargo crate and hunkered down behind it while Rusty threw a grenade high over his cover toward a concentration of enemy troops. "This must be where finesse goes out the window," Athrun mutters as he moves forward and begins suppressing fire on the right MS carrier. Four enemy soldiers were visible, two of them woefully exposed, and he did not hesitate to take advantage of their incompetence. In five seconds of fire those two went down, hard, one having lost a significant chunk of his head in the process.

The Marines made their presence known, one firing over the edge of the cargo container as Rusty continued moving right and around, ducking behind a staff car while the Marine Commander took up position where Rusty had been hiding. The Marine behind the low crate got one but himself was silenced as Athrun watched by no less than two shooters up on the MS carriers. "Rusty, we've got several still on the gantry to the left, and at least one on the right side," he declares.

"Got it, give me a moment and I'll clear off the right side," he pops up over the trunk of the car and looses one burst of 6.2mm rounds, but doesn't get his second trademark four-round burst off before the gun jams. "Damnit!" he half-shouts as he ducks back down, but not before something that immediately horrified Athrun happened: his helmet was struck by a round from the Earth Alliance soldier on the right MS carrier, gouging a serious chunk out of the top of it. "Whoa, man, that was freaking close!"

"Rusty, you all right?" Athrun asks, trying to control his heart from going completely out of control at the thought of losing a friend.

"Yeah, I'm still alive. My rifle is jammed solid, it'll take me a few to clear this one. Can you cover?"

"Better idea, here," Athrun kicks the rifle from the deceased Marine at the low crate over to Rusty. "I'll take down the soldier on the right-side gantry and draw their fire. When they start spraying me down, take advantage of it, repeat until we get 'em all," Athrun orders.

"Gotcha," Rusty replies. Athrun moved first, getting a clear shot at the soldier that was harassing Rusty, and took it. One shot, one kill; the contents of his head disintegrated into a pink mist that was spread liberally all over the side of the MS they were trying to capture. From there he turned on the two remaining on top of the left-side MS, unloading a suppressing burst of ten rounds on their position that definitely got their attention. As he ducked back behind the crate Rusty came around the side of the car's rear fender this time, drilling a pair of four-round bursts at their position and taking down the right-side of them with a pair of chest shots. He ducked back behind the car as the enemy in the orange jumpsuit focused in on him again, allowing Athrun to clear out and drop a series of three-round bursts at the soldier. Nothing contacted from his efforts, though it did succeed in drawing the attention of the enemy again, and this time Athrun paid for his gamble with a round striking the receiver area of his gun and rendering it inoperable. Rusty ducked out again, and this time the enemy was wise to their plan; Athrun watched in slow-motion as the soldier in the orange jumpsuit took aim at Rusty with a pistol as he took aim at the soldier with the heavy sub-machinegun. Ten rounds traded sides, though in the end Rusty won uncontested as the soldier's head was turned into a ghastly red mulch spread behind where standing in a cone for several meters, including on the face of someone that was standing on the MS but was unarmed. "Got the last! Area appears clear!"

"Go for the Mobile suit, Rusty, but watch your ass! There may be more of 'em!"

"Roger that!" Rusty shouts as he bolts from cover, sweeping right with his machine gun as Athrun moved to the dead Marine Commander and picked up his SMG to finish clearing the vicinity of the final MS.

_We got 'em all_! Athrun shouts inside his head. The plan called for them capturing three and destroying the other two, but scoring all five of the machines was a fortuitous victory on their part. With the SMG claimed, Athrun moved to the gantry carefully and leaped up on the MS Carrier. What he saw up there when he got there was the last thing he expected to see, especially see looking through an ACOG sight (4). "Kira?" he asks after a moment.

"A—Athrun?" the teenager kneeling next to the deceased Earth Alliance Officer asks. "But—"

"Get out of here, Kira," Athrun orders coldly. "You don't want a part of this. Get out, get to an evacuation shelter."

"Uh, Athrun?" Kira asks as he stands up.

"Go, Kira, before I drag you there," he orders more forcefully.

"Right," Kira replies before jumping off the side of the gantry to the ground. Athrun watched as he ran out of the factory block and toward more civilian areas. Unless someone else started shooting inside the colony, he would easily make it to the evacuation centers without undue harm. As Athrun looked away from where Kira had been running, he realized that the soldier's body was partially obstructing the cockpit access, so he grabbed the back of the obscenely orange jumpsuit and yanked...her...off the cockpit hatch. With some latent respect for even a dead Natural, he pulled her ID off and slid the body down the side of the MS before popping the hatch to the cockpit and jumping in.

"Damn, Athrun, she didn't look all that bad...for an Earth Alliance puke," Rusty declares on the radio frequency just after the hatch closes him into the cockpit.

"Rusty, for the last time, I am engaged already," Athrun notes drolly as he flips down the keyboard and begins modifying the Mobile Suit's OS to his specifications.

"I keep my options open," Rusty declares with a clear attitude of calmness on the subject.

"You are incorrigible, and slightly disgusting in terms of taste. She had at least ten years on you."

"Who was that kid, or do you know? Didn't look like military."

"Long story, Rusty. I'll explain when we get back to the _Vesalius_."

"You say so," Rusty mutters. "I'll wait here for you to get up and moving," he says.

"I'm up," Athrun says as the OS reboots, displaying General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver system. "Gundam?" Athrun mutters, reading the first letter of each word. "Gundam...sounds simple enough," Athrun declares with a little more gusto. As he stood the machine up he picked up the beam rifle for the unit, though unlike the other machine standing next to it there was no shield in his kit.

"Gundam, is it? Acronym for the OS full name? I like it, sounds powerful, spooky," Rusty declares. "What's your unit's designation?"

"X-105 Strike," Athrun says. "You?"

"X-303 Aegis," Rusty replies immediately. "Oh, wait, hold on," his machine changes color from slate gray-on-gunmetal gray to white-on-maroon. A moment thereafter a pair of missiles strike the chest of his MS and cause no damage whatsoever, not even a paint scratch. The beam rifle came up and took two shots, the first striking, the second also striking but grossly unnecessary. "Man, this thing is almost double faster than a standard GINN in terms of reaction speed and lock-on time."

"The Earth Alliance really pushed the envelope with these new models," Athrun says. "Mine even has a modular frame for add-on weapons and equipment packs."

"Well, where are the packs?" Rusty asks.

"I don't have a clue, probably on that Warship they built to carry these things," Athrun declares. "We'll worry about that later, let's get these two back to the ship." Athrun had stopped to spray down an enemy missile truck with his 75mm CIWS, efficiently shredding it into several large chunks and igniting its petrol-based fuel into a raging inferno on the concrete street.

"Roger that, I have the lead," Rusty declares as he jumps off. "Miguel, Rusty, we have all five machines. Mission accomplished, return to base."

"Any survivors among the Marines?" Miguel asks.

"Negative, none from our section. If any did survive it would have been with Yzak, Dearka or Nicol."

"Their section bought it as well," Miguel replies immediately. "A flanking attack by some pissed-off Earth Alliance troops got 'em all, but the Earth Alliance paid for it when Yzak got the Duel up and running." Miguel did not have to say how effective the CIWS guns in the head of the Duel would have been against unarmored Infantry. In point of fact, as Athrun was leaving the factory district he could see the said infantry's remnants, and it was not pretty whatsoever. "Continue destroying their transports?"

"Negative, return to base," Athrun orders. "We are done here, the Commander wants these machines back immediately."

"Roger that," Miguel replies. "Can't wait to see what those things are really worth," Miguel declares as his machine catches up to the speeding Gundams, barely.

" 'The Magic Bullet of Dusk' is about to get some stiff competition from the undergraduates," Rusty declares with a hint of a chuckle.

"If those things fight half as badass as they look, my poor customized GINN is toast," Miguel declares sourly. That was good for a laugh from Rusty, since Miguel's GINN was so heavily tweaked that even with a full combat load of Cattus antishipping recoilless rifle and Pardus intercept missiles it was still capable of outpacing a standard CGUE commander's mobile suit. The only problem with his modified GINN was that the damned thing spent more time in maintenance than in service.

They were approaching the airlock to exit the colony, and no sign of continued resistance from anything in the area. They knew they had not killed off everything Earth Alliance in the colony, there was still the new-model Warship at the other end of the colony to be dealt with, and without a doubt there was still Earth Alliance personnel here and there berthing or caught in non-essential areas, but ZAFT had effectively crippled the Earth Alliance G-weapons project in one stroke. "This will change the war for certain," Athrun declares.

"No doubt," Miguel says as the airlock doors close behind them. "All we have to do is take out that Warship, or even capture it would be just as good, and we have this tiger by the balls," he says staunchly. "No offense to Andrew Waltfeld, of course," he appends; Andrew Waltfeld was known as the 'Desert Tiger' for more than one reason, and even had his pilot's suit modified to a tiger-stripe pattern.

The external airlock doors opened up to space, allowing the three to take off for the Vesalius and Gammow which were holding station nearby the colony for the pickup of the machines. "_Vesalius_, this is Rusty Mackenzie in X-303 Aegis, requesting permission to land."

"X-303 Aegis, this is _Vesalius_, welcome back and congratulations. You are cleared for priority landing at this time," the Controller replies immediately.

"_Vesalius_, Athrun Zala in X-105 Strike reporting, requesting landing instructions," Athrun asks after Rusty gets halfway down the landing path.

"X-105 Strike, congratulations are in order. You are cleared to land, you are at gate 3 for parking. Commander Creuset, _Vesalius_ Control, we confirm all five machines are here and accounted for. Mission accomplished."

"Commander Creuset to _Vesalius_, I am being engaged by one Moebius Zero unit at this time, I am unable to return. Be advised I will return when I have swatted this fly. Stand by for updates," and his radio link cuts out.

Athrun brought the Strike in for a landing deftly, very much surprised by how nimble it was for a completely prototype model made by someone who probably didn't have the first clue how to build a Mobile Suit. With a few steps backward guided by a marshaler on the ground, he was able to back into the needed cubicle and stop his MS in the proper place to park it. With that done, the crews immediately began opening the Strike up for connecting their analysis equipment. Athrun shut down the operating system and popped open the cockpit, kicking out of the enclosure and into the waiting arms of his technician team.

"Hell yes, man! We won!" Rusty declares, waiting for him outside the cockpit. "We completely hosed the Earth Alliance! Unhh!" Athrun and Rusty high-five, which had the strange effect of causing both to recoil away from each other in space. "This is so going to change the face of the war!"

"We won," Athrun replies; "but it's far from over. Now we have to stick it to the Earth Alliance."

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Author's Chapter Afterword:

And this is where it begins.

One variable changes; how does the rest of the story change? You've seen part of that change already. No mobile forces to protect the Archangel; how will the Legged Ship fare in its battles to come? And how will ZAFT having all five Gundams change the face of the war?

If you are expecting me to play 'nice' in this, the fact that one of the Earth Alliance MCs is already dead should have disabused you of that idea fairly quickly. Though a lot of what is to come is going to be subject to the dice and therefore itself is variable, you can literally expect this one to be a very grim, bloody fic. There will be death. Lots of it. And it won't even be limited to the Earth Alliance.

I consider this one a bit of a cross-bred Fic compared to my other works. No, there will be no crossover elements, not even hints of it. I can write straight Fics, and this is going to be one of them. The crossbreeding in this one is the fantastic Sci-Fi of Gundam SEED (All the glitz, glamour, major explosions, etcetera) combined with cold, hard reality. Nothing says 'bloody' when you take a sci-fi that is already very bloody and add hints of real war to it. The other major change of this one is that I intend on keeping the chapter lengths short, preferably less than 10K words per chapter (as opposed to 15K for AAA and 20K plus for JW).

This is just the beginning. Expect a lot more to come.

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Review Replies:

No reviews yet. I WANT TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, PEOPLE! The more, the merrier.

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The Gripe Sheet:

None so far. If you catch anything, I want to see it.

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Footnotes:

(0): Oh yes, if I put a footnote in, even one in the story foreword, there will be something interesting about it. Or maybe not, unless you want to hear about the polar bear that walked into a bar with a penguin under one arm and a three foot sausage under the other...

(1): As gunfire consists of flying lead caused by violently expanding gases, when enough is used in a confined space the air pressure will increase unless there are safety devices to prevent such a happenstance in the ventilation systems. The bigger the gun, the more violently expanding gases released, so the use of a 76mm machine gun is going to cause some serious pressure spike in due course. The only question is how much expansion does it take?

(2): Offensive grenades have a thin wall designed not to fragment, that way a trooper would not frag himself or his teammates when in close contact. Defensive grenades have thicker walls that will fragment on detonation and are designed to be used from cover so the fragmentation does not kill the thrower when it blows.

(3): Plunging Fire is where fire comes down on a target from above or an angle, as opposed to enfilade fire which comes from the front of a column or grazing fire which sweeps down a whole side.

(4): ACOG sights are small, 4x-power scopes usually attached to assault rifles. Designed to be lightweight and powerful. Definitely not cheap. I looked at getting one for one of my rifles, and recoiled in horror at the price tag.


	2. Fleet Of Foot

(Red Shift, Chapter 02: Fleet of Foot)

A loud buzzing sound warned the team working on the X-105 Strike that the two different projects had accessed the same part of the OS and the system did not like that. "Hey!"

"Sorry," Athrun replied to the disgruntled Tech. "Started working on your section without realizing it."

"It's cool, we're done here anyways," the other tech answered.

It was not as if Athrun had distraction to serve as an excuse as to why he was working so furiously on something that needed not his ministrations. Kira had been there, it was unmistakable that the guy on the other side of his ACOG was Kira, but at the least he did not appear to be Earth Alliance or aiding them. His involvement in the battle was probably incidental, a civilian caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even still, the thought of having to face his best friend in battle was unnerving at best, and downright dreaded at worst.

_Not__possible_, Athrun rebuked himself hastily. Objectively, all evidence suggested that Kira was not involved and would not be involved. Any worrying he was doing on the subject was pointless angst in the face of a workload that could not suffer the time for him to have to 'sort out his personal shit' as his boot camp instructor phrased it. He decided after a moment that he wasn't going to do any extraneous worrying on the subject unless Kira showed up again.

An impact sound—plastic against metal—brought his attention up from the secondary screens in the Aegis and to the offending object, in this case a drink container that had bounced into his cockpit. "Hey, Athrun!"

"Rusty, what's up?" Athrun asked as he seized the floating drink bottle.

"Just figured you needed a break, you've been at it for approaching an hour now," Rusty had stopped on the cockpit hatch, lounging against the edge of the cockpit frame where the door would normally seal closed. "Thanks, man."

"Huh?" Athrun requested clarification.

"You saved my bacon back there, those EA officers almost had me cold. Couple centimeters difference and we would have only scored four out of the five."

"It's not as happy-go-lucky as you make it sound, dork," Athrun replied crassly. "That scared the crap out of me."

"Why, I didn't know you cared so much," Rusty answered with a clear hint of tease. Athrun did not raise to the bait offered by Rusty.

Athrun took another sip of the apple juice. "We're a team, remember? If we all don't come home, none of us ever truly come home."

"Yeah, and this war has already done that to a lot of us," Rusty grumped. "How's yours coming?"

"Excellent," Athrun said with a hint of cheer to voice. "I'd need to have the actual Striker Packs to work out how to interface them, but it's a little late to ask all those EA officers where they are, you know?"

"Probably on that ship," Rusty sighed and the inevitability of what he had to say next. "Creuset will want to capture or kill that ship as well."

"I know," Athrun groused. "Since they have little to no guard left for the ship, taking it down should be a fairly straightforward attack. Still, I don't think it will be easy, that ship was a lot larger than even the Earth Alliance_Agamemnon_-class ships."

"Straightforward, not easy. I think I can live with that," Rusty opined. "Now, about that guy that was on the platform..."

"I knew him long ago," Athrun said. "Kira Yamato. Coordinator, old friend of mine from Lunar Prep School. As far as I can tell, not involved in this at all."

"Didn't look like he was trying to get into the machine, so..."

"So yeah, uninvolved," Athrun closed out that debate._I__hope__he__made__it__to__an__evac__shelter_, Athrun thought but did not say. After a few silent moments behind a passive face, he dismissed the thought of his friend still being loose in the colony. Kira was known to Athrun to be something of a space case, but he was not foolhardy by most definitions of the word. He would have departed the scene extremely quickly and found his way to an available evacuation block post haste.

"You'll have to file a contact report, though."

"Already have," Athrun commented; he had already filed his entire after-action report, much less the contact report. The one thing that had positively mystified him was the mountains of paperwork that always came with a battle. It almost seemed as if the bureaucracy had to torture ZAFT for winning, which seemed an ass-backwards way of doing things to Athrun.

The one thing he glossed over was the sharp tack he took with Kira. Be it a combination of adrenaline, fright from seeing his old friend in the place at the wrong time, Rusty's near-death experience, or even just plain frustration at Orb for schlepping with the Earth Alliance bastards, he had been a bit sharp with Kira.

"Damn you're fast. I haven't even cracked my paperwork folder."

"Best to get it over with, enjoy your break before you have to turn around and do it again," Athrun offered as his dose of sage advice for the day.

"True," Rusty nodded assent to the point.

"So, what did we get?" Athrun asked.

"A whole heaping helping of whoopass," Rusty replied immediately. "The 102, the Duel, general purpose. The 103, Buster, fire support heavy artillery. 105, yours, general purpose modular. The 207 machine, Blitz, stealth infiltration and close combat. And mine, the X303 Aegis, high-speed combat and unit coordination."

"The Earth Alliance was thinking ahead when they built this series," Athrun opined. "One in close, two general purpose, one fire support, and one G-P with command."

"Yeah, toss in the ship and you have the makings of a heavy strike team capable of turning the enemy — us — into hamburger."

"Makes you wonder what other tricks they have up their sleeves," Athrun suggested.

"I don't know, but I think we just reversed the deck on them and stacked it in our favor," Rusty said.

"I don't see this being the all-inclusive crushing victory that it appears to be, man." The raised eyebrow from Rusty was question enough. "They have – had these five machines, and intel says this was backed by the Admiral of the Earth Alliance eighth fleet. He's no dumbass, unlike some of the other EA brass. This is probably one of six projects like this, and the others are likely geared toward sustainable mass-production units just good enough to take the edge off our machines." The unstated caveat was that while the machines may be just barely a match to ZAFT machines, the Earth Alliance could field far more far more quickly than ZAFT could counter. It was an old story of warfare, a foe that could not win on battlefield merit would often force a victory with sheer force of numbers.

"Hush, drink your apple juice and stop being a pessimist," Rusty replied in jest, though even his eyes betrayed that he believed Athrun's assessment. "You're right, though," he relented after a moment.

"Hey, there you are," Rusty's head snapped around and focused on Nicol, coming up the catwalk. "Commander Le Creuset has called a debrief and briefing for the next operation."

"I warned you," Athrun goaded his teammate.

"Whatever," Rusty waved it off.

-x-x-x-

"We do not have much time before the _Gamow_ and _Vesalius_ are in position, so I will be fast with the briefing," Creuset began. "We have the prototype machines in our possession, an impressive coup for ZAFT, but all indications remain that the ship itself is still a powerful entity even without support. Therefore, we will attempt to capture or sink the ship and deny this powerful asset to the Earth Alliance."

"Oh boy," Dearka grumped in a muted fashion.

Creuset either did not hear it or simply ignored it. "As the primary purpose of this operation is specifically an objective raid and not combat deployment of captured assets, our method of attacking the ship must be reliant on only our existing force of GINN mobile suits only, as the prototype units are mission-critical and cannot be deployed for operations until we have extracted all intelligence possible from the machines. Therefore, this mission will commence with the GINN units in thirty minutes. This will be followed up by subsequent move-to-contact and attack orders for the warships if necessary."

"So we don't get to bash them senseless with their own toys," Yzak grumped.

"There will be another time and another day," Dearka consoled the hothead with the silver-blue hair.

"Indeed," Creuset replied evenly. "Once we have extracted intelligence, it is my intention to deploy this team as a frontline unit to counter any new surprises the Earth Alliance may conjure up in the coming months of the war." His comment drew some grunts from the rest of the team. "For now, however, we must deal with the new threat in the warship community, and that means heavy artillery. Olor, Miguel, you two will lead the remaining GINNs in attack against the Warship. I will join you in my CGUE, but yours will be the main thrust of the attack. The CGUE is not capable of handling the heavy weapons needed for damaging a warship; I will provide intercept if they have any remaining surprises, but you will need to do the damage against the ship."

"Weapons?" Olor asked fairly. If the CGUE's best standard weapon, the 76mm MG, was not going to cut it, the GINN units would need heavier weapons to do the job. Authorization for heavier weapons had to come from the Commander, so...

"You are authorized for weapons configuration D," Creuset replied, causing the room to almost go cold. Such an arsenal was not used unless storming heavy fortifications, it was seldom ever used against ships, much less one ship inside a neutral colony. "Have your weapons selections in the system in fifteen minutes, and think heavy: this is a big ship we're targeting. Any other questions?" There were none. "Dismissed."

Athrun and Rusty headed out towards the pilot's ready room together, with Dearka and Yzak headed toward the rear of the ship and Nicol and Miguel headed toward the hangar area. "Going to crack your paperwork now?"

"Yeah," Rusty sighed. "Is it just me, or is our job 95 percent boredom and 5 percent sheer terror?"

"I think every job in the world is like that," Athrun replied after a moment. "Or something like that," he appended after a few moments.

"Something like that," Rusty agreed. "Some more terror than boredom, others more boredom than terror."

"Unless you are called in by the boss," Athrun added a corollary.

The intercom system clicked. "Rusty Mackenzie, please report to the Commander's room."

"Don't say it," Athrun said, pointing at Rusty in mock threat.

"My ghost will haunt you," Rusty said stoically before he reversed course to head for the commander's room.

Athrun continued onward alone, though he ended up diverting to the hangar and the new machines within. He had a good guess as to why the Earth Alliance had designed five prototypes, since the designs provided five different areas of flexibility and purpose. Athrun reminded himself that overspecialization could cripple the usefulness of a design, especially in military application, though some amount of specialization was a requirement for everything the military did. The GINN units got as far as they did by being both good and very flexible; the Earth Alliance looked to mirror such tactics with the new units, though now with their prototypes in ZAFT hands the plan would be set back by months at worst, maybe even crippled.

He sighed, thankful that the machines were captured without a (serious) hitch. The loss of the Marines was one thing, but hardly the worst thing that could have happened.

-x-x-x-

"This is Miguel. Have entered the harbor area, no track on the ship at this time," Pilot Aiman said. His hands rested loose on the control surfaces, as he didn't expect anything more or less out of this battle than the last few times he had done battle with the Earth Alliance space navy. In terms of mindset, he was outside his element - his personal (and customized) GINN had been shot up pretty badly by a mercenary operating under contract to the Earth Alliance naval forces.

"Enemy ship should be in the center-most area of the harb – whoa, shit!" Olor slammed his thrusters to clear a piece of debris that punched through the center-most dock doors. Immediately, the dock in question began venting to space, though another piece of debris was quick to lodge in the hole and stop the worst part of the leak.

"Report, Olor!" Commander Le Creuset ordered.

"Enemy ship presence strongly believed to be in central harbor docks, debris from that area has been observed," Miguel informed the _Gamow_ controllers.

"Airlock left and down," Olor noted as he returned to proper flight level for the formation. "Should be big enough to fit all six GINNs in."

"Pack in, guys, we're goin' hunting on the far side," Miguel said. Olor stopped at the control panel and activated the door release routine, then waited. After the initial lag of the command, the doors were speedy to open and allow them inside, not unlike what they would expect from the auspices of Orb: a machine that worked properly and efficiently.

On the other hand, the airlock wasn't as big as it looked from the outside. "GINN jigsaw time, comrades," Olor said with a clear tone of disdain to voice.

"This is gonna be fun," the unit's only female pilot grumped.

"You go in first, I want you on the outside and to the right," Miguel directed her to the one area where the other pilots couldn't easily harass her. "Olor, forward and left corner, weapon facing inward toward the center."

"Gotcha," Olor said neutrally.

The whole colony rumbled physically and audibly through the frame of their suits that were in contact with the colony dock hull. "What was that?"

"I got a bad feeling about what that might have been," Miguel said calmly.

"When you get feelings like that, insurance rates go up," Olor said in jest.

The colony shook again, this time with the distinct timbre of missile impacts nearby. "Someone's getting frisky," the female pilot said.

"Run," Miguel said.

"Sir?" the unit greenhorn asked for clarification.

"Run! That ship's coming this way, and if we get caught in close against it we're dead men. Pull back, it'll come to us soon enough." To accentuate his words, Miguel put his foot down to escape the docking bay area. The other five in the unit were not far behind, with two moving toward the escape vector while they were facing backwards to ensure nothing crept up on them from the rear.

"Holy crap, sir! Breach, external airlock on bay 5," the lady noted. "Big breach!"

"It's probably a big ship," Miguel answered. "Put your feet down, people! We're in a vulnerable position right now!"

"Now is really not a good time to die!" Olor half-shouted as he tried hard to catch up to Miguel.

The enemy ship bade fair to prove Miguel correct. Four heavy warship beam cannons chopped through the outer airlock door on the shipping bay, beam cannons easily larger than the beam cannons mounted on the _Laurasia_-class ZAFT ships, possibly bigger than the pair of beam cannons on a _Nazca_-class ship. It took a minute before the ship fired the same weapons again, but again the same result. No manner of civilian docking bulkhead was going to stand long against warship-grade firepower.

"Command, Miguel, we don't have to worry about looking for the enemy ship, they're coming to us!"

"Miguel, command, acknowledged. Gain space and prepare to draw the enemy ship in toward the _Gamow_."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Miguel answered immediately. "Team, continue fallback, sprint to the ships and prepare to drop on the enemy ship as soon as it is clear!"

-x-

"Captain, all our GINN suits are arrayed to begin an assault as soon as the ship clears the harbor," the MS controller responded to a quick request for disposition of the mobile forces.

"Thank you, Operator," Captain Zellman replied evenly. After a few moments, he activated the ship-wide broadcast system. "Gunnery stations, this is the bridge. Per orders from Commander Le Creuset, we will momentarily begin a gun battle with the Earth Alliance's new warship. All hands are to brace for impacts at any time and damage control parties are to be on standby for critical damage to the ship. That is all."

The next thing to issue from the harbor of Heliopolis was not so much weapons fire as it was an incredible amount of spall from the efforts to free the ship. "Whoa, did they just gut the entire dock area?" the Operator asked, putting voice to the thoughts of half the bridge crew.

The sensor specialist put voice to the thoughts of the other half: "What kind of weapon could do that? And be mounted on a ship?"

"I don't know, Specialist," Captain Zelman answered calmly. "Helm, after we fire our first volley, bring the ship left and put some speed on. Radio, signal the Vesalius by laser-line to our intent."

"Aye, sir," the helmswoman replied immediately.

"Weapons, focus primarily on missiles and beam cannons. We'll worry about the beam cannons or 125-millimeter guns after we've taken the measure of our newest foe."

"Roger that, sir, weapons are on standby. Awaiting order to fire."

A stray thought came to Zellman. "Sensors, deactivate all systems except the Neutron Jammer and infrared passive sensors. Cage the laser designators on standby. Comms, pass recommendation to Captain Ades to do the same. Given how far away from the colony we are, the enemy ship is not likely to spot us immediately unless we're broadcasting."

"I'm on it," the commo person typed out a quick and dirty tac-flash message to be sent to the _Vesalius_ by way of laser-line communication. The principle was simple, and one often overlooked by a layman: broadcast sensor systems (radar, sonar, etc.) worked marvelously in detecting things out to their specified maximum range, but were visible to an enemy machine with proper equipment at roughly three times their effective range. Thus, wise captains throughout history had learned to turn off the active equipment when not needed or when the enemy could not see them otherwise. It was a lesson ZAFT had learned the hard way courtesy of the Earth Alliance 8th Fleet Naval Forces.

"All systems set to powered inactive, Captain. Just say the word and I'll reactivate."

"Captain, it's coming out," the helmswoman cautioned before anything else was said.

"And now we get a good look at our great foe," Zellman groused to himself. "Weps, confirm standby."

"Standing by with all weapons, preparing dead-fire solution to enemy ship with beam cannons, missiles. Should be ready in about thirty seconds."

"The enemy ship should be out and vulnerable in thirty seconds," the sensor specialist opined.

"Don't want to damage Heliopolis, that would cause a severe international incident and erode support with the neutral nations," the weapons officer said in a half-mocking tone. Half the reason the Earth Alliance was so intransigent was because the neutral nations had sit idly by while the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations had marched off to war.

"I could care less about Heliopolis," Zellman said, echoing the operational sentiment of more than a few ZAFT personnel. "I want a clean shot at the ship before we begin maneuvering. Once it is out in open space, it won't be able to duck back into the colony so easily."

"I hear that," the weapons officer replied with a savage tone.

Thirty seconds later: "How freaking long is this ship?" the sensor officer asked in exasperation. The enemy vessel was still exiting the dock area, and just barely had the conning tower of the ship come visible to the _Gamow_.

"Like it was designed with legs," the helmswoman opined as she tapped her foot nervously. "It's a large but graceful thing. Too bad we have to shoot it down."

"I think that's about it," Zellman said as the last of what appeared to be tail binders exited the port. "Sensors, any indication they have spotted us at this time?"

"Negative, sir, no active sensor sweeps, no lasers."

"Weapons, prepare to fire. Operator, issue orders to the Mobile Suits to break and engage after we have fired the first volley."

-x-

"You heard the Captain, team. Give a ready report and start praying," Miguel said dryly, looking down from his vantage point on the enemy ship. He figured it was a graceful thing just the same as the helmswoman had, but to him the immense bulk of the ship made it nothing more than a large target.

"Ready," Olor answered immediately.

"Oh yeah," the one monomaniacal confident pilot in Miguel's unit answered with cheer.

"Ready," the lady in the unit said.

"Now would be an opportune time to take a whizz, because it's about to get real heavy real fast," Miguel said.

It was not more than thirty seconds before the _Gamow _fired five missiles at the enemy ship. Though Miguel expected the missiles would be intercepted (he could count two rotary-barrel CIWS guns in their direct flight path), it was only at the last second that the guns did anything - and that only amounted to one missile scratched. The other four struck amidships, causing notable damage but not knocking out any major weapons or movement systems that they could recognize.

"Move in, guys! We've got 'em napping!" Miguel ordered

"Keep moving, and move randomly! Those CIWS guns can tear your machine apart of you let them!" Olor said for the benefit of the rookies on the team. Other than Miguel, he was the only truly 'veteran' trooper in the team.

"And stay clear of the firing line from the _Vesalius_ and _Gamow_," Commander Creuset ordered from the bridge of the _Vesalius_. As if to highlight why, the _Vesalius _opened up with its paired beam cannons, and in the process a piece of space debris was caught in the path of one of the beams temporarily. The debris lasted less than a tenth of a second before it was punched through, something inside it giving off a sparking report as it blew out; the debris continued drifting after the hit, though on a different course.

The beams from the _Vesalius _streaked to the enemy warship, though across the distance of firing and not using active sensor systems cost them in accuracy. One of the beams punched through the sub-wing assembly on the starboard side, effectively superficial damage to the ship as a whole. The other beam missed completely, passing through the gap between the sub-wing and the rear of the starboard 'leg' of the ship.

_Gamow _fired next, a bare two seconds after _Vesalius _had. The results from the older _Laurasia_-class ship were a bit better in terms of real net damage, but hardly what Zellman expected from his ship. Both beams punched through the top of the port-side 'leg' forward of the main gun assembly and terminated inside the ship, an unexpected result for beam cannon fire against a warship. "Holy crap, how heavy is that armor?"

"Don't think about it, just prepare to close in and hammer on the ship!" Miguel ordered of his rookies.

"I'll see if I can scratch some of the CIWS guns on this side, Miguel," Olor announced his intention. "Stand by!"

Two of the rookies released missiles from their heavy launchers (M66 Canus short-range missile launcher), and in close the enemy CIWS guns had little issue intercepting the slow, large missiles at range. Three were shredded at range, a fourth struck the ship on the vertical tail and apparently blew off some kind of dome device. "Damn! These things have serious CIWS!"

"Guys, they're getting ready to fire their main guns!" Olor half-shouted as the turrets on the front of the ship rotated and angled to face the warships. It was only a second after they stopped moving that a shot was snapped off, with four beams nearly double the diameter of the best cannons on any ZAFT ship.

"Oh shit! They hit the _Vesalius_!"

"What? Oh — keep maneuvering! We're too close to the ship to get complacent!" Miguel ordered.

"All forces Creuset Team, this is Command; retreat, return immediately to ship. _Vesalius _is damaged and _Gamow _doesn't have the firepower to match the enemy ship." To accompany the radio order to retreat, a flare set was launched from the _Vesalius _ordering a return to the ship.

"You heard the lady," Miguel said. "Olor with me, cover fire for the rest of the team."

"On it," Olor said in clipped monotone as he maneuvered to break a lock the enemy CIWS guns had on him.

Miguel and Olor moved forward to brave the guns of the enemy ship, that their four comrades could return to the ship safely.

* * *

Author's Chapter Afterword:

I can assure you all that any speculation on my demise is exaggerated. That is, _**if**_ there was any such speculation. I have heard no such question myself, so...

Anyways, welcome to the second chapter of Red Shift, some three years and change after I posted the first chapter. This is one of the stories I have long wanted to produce for Gundam SEED in traditional purpose, not as part of a mass-crossover. Though I will admit that having to stick to SEED canon limits options, it is not the constraints that I write for, but the challenge of the constraints. I have to play everything straight, or close to straight, to make this work. SEED, and only SEED, is my mandate, within limits. This, of course, doesn't mean I cannot correct the massive failures of tactics shown in SEED, so...

Of course, the storyline itself has a goodly ration of those elements that I demonstrate in the Jokers Wild series, though once again I must be somewhat temperate on my modifications thereof; it is easy to make things out-of-character by making them too realistic in SEED, as well as extremely easy to skew the odds in one direction or another if not applied evenly.

Note so far you're not seeing much in the way of the Earth Alliance players; for the sake of brevity, I am not including their viewpoint just yet, since in all reality this is a ZAFT-centric fic. also, as of right now it is up in the air as to whether or not Kira will have any involvement in this story, given how abruptly he was knocked out of the equation by Athrun. For sure, his friends in Sai, Tolle, Kuzzey and Miriallia are not at jeopardy right now, since the Strike did not have to fight GINNs and thus forced them into an urban combat scenario.

I would say the best challenge is keeping this short. Remember, in the early chapters of SEED, the battles were short and usually inconclusive. This is completely anathema to my style of writing; anyone who has read Jokers Wild, or, for that matter, Archangel's Amazing Adventures knows I write out major campaigns as my bread-and-butter battle scenes. Forcing myself to step away from the action is a bit difficult.

The major thing with any of my writing at this time is not so much a lack of time nor motivation - to the contrary, I have both the time and the inclination, and a desire to finish up my stories! The problem is focus, plain and simple. I am so readily distracted by the complete shithole state of my country at this time, and though intellectually I know there is little / nothing I can do about it, I still cannot help but get lost in surfing news sites, reading the opinions of others. It is as much a dread fascination thing as any else; not dissimilar to a train wreck, you know it is going to be messy as hell but you can't stop watching. Completing this chapter was something of an endeavor of will, and a good one for my soul.

Next Chapter: the forced break-off of the ZAFT ships gives the _Archangel_ time to escape, but it is only a temporary respite...

* * *

Review Replies: I was surprised to receive eight reviews for the opening chapter. I hope this next one was up to par with the first release some three years ago!

**Frasermage**: I'm beginning to think rifles are trending upwards in caliber again, given that light slugs are proving to be unreliable at producing the vaunted fragmentation effect when penetrating soft tissue. 6.2mm sits in a pretty good niche for combat rifles: heavy enough to cause some serious trauma on a hit, even using FMJ (Ball) ammo, light enough that your ammo is still reasonably-sized and doesn't weigh a ton.

You are correct about the EA having suits shortly, and Orb being totally boned is a given any way you cut it. The only question is when do they get the bone.

**Etienne****Of****The****West****Wind**: I think the polar bear and the penguin will have to show up in a later chapter. The beginning here is slow compared to my other works, but expect it to heat up in good measure.

**One****-****Village****-****Idiot**: Yes, I may have changed the color schema of the Aegis...of course, with that, the other color schema may change subtly as well...

**MisterSP**: Yours is a helluva analysis, and of course by sheer luck some of your points are close or exact matches on the decision tree that this story is based on. Of course, where those branches are decided is based heavily on random number generation (dice, in short), so where the story goes is still up in the air.

On your final analysis point, I cannot deny that what you opine is a very real possibility. This said, I cannot stress enough that the decision points necessary to cause such a wipeout are not absolute; with some luck, the dice may give the world a way out.

**Knight Owl 4183**: Ah, the perennial hound is here! Always a pleasure to have someone willing to chew on my works without reserve!

You are right, with a certain series of decision gates. Remember that my stories are governed by the dice, so what you suggest may happen, or may not.

All things considered, though, I want to know where you are getting the intel on Rusty and his personae, because anything I have read thus far didn't cover him.

Your read or not, your call. You may be surprised.

**G****. ****Wagers**** (****ANON****Review****)**: As I said in my author notes, Kira may or may not be involved further. Decision points for those events are still up in the air.

On the other point, the mental question Athrun put in was in the show, so it was an echo of those events. The confrontation between Kira and Athrun up on the strike was Athrun bleeding off stress and trying to get Kira to safety (albeit with little tact - adrenaline will do that).

**Deathzealot**: Kill off Rau Le Creuset, eh? Interesting thought, but of course it is a very real possibility. This story will rewrite the bulk of SEED, so that may become a decision gate sometime in the future.

**Platinum****Exile**** (****ANON****Review****)**: You know, when my stories are governed by the dice, many things are possible. Nicol isn't likely to get chopped down, now, mainly because the Strike is now Athrun's machine. Stand by for further!

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! These issues have been long to be answered, as I have taken long to resume this story. I hope it is up to par with what you all expected, and I will try to clear more chapters coming!

* * *

The Gripe Sheet:

The only gripe outstanding is the thought that Creuset is going to nuke 'em all. No faith in the dice, some people have...

* * *

Footnotes:

None for this chapter.


End file.
